Ever the illusionist, however, he first sent a car along containing a look-a-like in swimming costume, and while the police were busy dealing with the impostor, Houdini climbed up onto one of the bridge's buttresses and lept into the water below.

The film, written by Nicholas Meyer ("The Informant'') and directed by Uli Edel ("The Mists of Avalon''), repeatedly suggests psychological forces prompted Houdini to keep pushing himself toward more and more dangerous tricks, without really offering much of a reason why.

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